When Cherry Dabney-Robbins opened her gym off Wisconsin Ave., she never gave much thought of it becoming a full-fledged gymnastics program.

That changed last week when Dabney-Robbins announced the formation of the GymSouth competive gymnastics team and a GymSouth pre-team.

&#8220I just wanted to teach gymnastics. I never wanted to do competitions,” Dabney-Robbins said. &#8220But I got talked into it. It’s been six years since there’s been a gymnastics team from Vicksburg.”

Seventeen girls were introduced as the GymSouth competitive team. Another 18 were named to the pre-team.

Dabney-Robbins said it will be at least three months before the competitive team will have its first meet.

&#8220It’s going to be very slow, as slow as we need to go, because I don’t want to send someone in to compete who’s not ready. It’ll be one step at a time,” Dabney-Robbins said.

Basically what changes is the amount of time the competitive gymnasts will get to spend on learning the compulsories of the sport, including the beam, the bars and the floor exercise.

&#8220In a short amount of time, these girls have done a lot, going just 1 1/2 hours a week. Now, we’ll be able to go up to six hours a week. I know they are excited.

&#8220But in order to compete, it takes a lot of time and dedication. There’s not much time for anything else and these are some busy little girls,” she said.

Getting a coach like Amanda Hebert, who competed in the Southeastern Conference at LSU, and former Mississippi State cheerleader Krisa Rowland, is another big reason why Dabney-Robbins felt her program could enter the competitive arena.

&#8220It helps enormously because I can just be an administrator,” she said.

The GymSouth competitive team will gear toward competing at levels 2-4. Hebert was a level 10 gymnast coming out of high school in Baton Rouge.

Vicksburg’s Claire Reid, 15, reached level 6, competing with Courthouse Gymnastics in Jackson before retiring at age 12 because of an injury. She’ll help coach at GymSouth.

&#8220It’s fun because now they’ll learn more of the elements that go into competing. Most of them right now know the skills,” Reid said.

The summer is actually the off-season for competitive gymnastics. Most meets are held in the fall and the schedule runs through early spring.

&#8220There are so many meets, but basically, it’s October through March. We’re just hoping to see where we are by March,” Reid said.